before April 5, 1937

[Drohobych]. Bruno Schulz writes a birthday dedication to his niece Ela in the illustration for the story Spring, depicting Bianca with a governess on a walk and Józef with Rudolf. However, the drawing does not reach the addressee.

Schulz did not use the drawing dedicated to his niece as an illustration for the story. The first editions of Spring* were not illustrated at all1; in the book published by Rój* in 1937, the theme of Bianca on a walk does not appear at all, though the story was illustrated with as many as nine drawings. Perhaps then Schulz drew a scene of a meeting in the park especially for his niece’s birthday. If so, the plan was not fully put into life. Years later, Ela Podstolska*, answering the questions of Jerzy Ficowski*, claimed: “I was born on 5 May, 1914 in Drohobych (on one of Brunio’s drawing, there is a birthday dedication for me, but he did not remember the exact date and was mistaken for a month; I never received this drawing)”2.

The drawing was published by Ficowski in the first edition of Księga listów from 19753, without specifying the provenance (in later publications he added the information “private collection”4). It is not known what happened with the drawing after Schulz entered the dedication. In the jubilee catalogue, Wojciech Chmurzyński states: “its location is unknown”5. (sr) (transl. mw)

  • 1
    Cf. publications in Kamena (1935, no. 10), Skamander (1936, no. 74 and 75) and Wiadomości Literackie (1937, no. 21).
  • 2
    Ela Podstolska, Letter to Jerzy Ficowski dated October 21, 1983, Bruno Schulz w oczach świadków. Listy, wspomnienia i relacje, edited by Jerzy Kandziora, Gdańsk [in preparation], p. 466.
  • 3
    Bruno Schulz, Księga listów, collected, edited, provided with an introduction, footnotes and an appendix by Jerzy Ficowski, Kraków 1975, fig. 12 (with the caption: “Drawing with a dedication to niece; ink, 1937”).
  • 4
    For example, in: Bruno Schulz, Ilustracje do własnych utworów, zebrał, opracował, słowem wstępnym opatrzył Jerzy Ficowski, Warszawa 1992, p. 160, fig. 37.
  • 5
    Bruno Schulz 1892–1942. Katalog-pamiętnik wystawy „Bruno Schulz. Ad Memoriam” w Muzeum Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza, pod red. Wojciecha Chmurzyńskiego, Warszawa 1995, p. 267 (cat. 538).